How to Use Video Analytics to Generate Revenue

This past July at the 2013 Video Commerce Summit, Liveclicker’s own Vice President of Sales, Simon Mutlu, and Director of Account Development, Ben Kopetti, shared their expert advice on how to utilize video analytics to generate better results. Choosing the right video metrics is an essential component to obtaining beneficial results. During this session, Simon and Ben outlined these 5 key metrics to focus on:

1. Dollars per play

2. Viewer feedback

3. A/B testing

4. Video comparison

5. Ad hoc analysis

Dollars per play

Many retailers get into the habit of measuring a video’s success by only the cumulative amount of video plays. This may be a great measure for brand exposure, but it doesn’t prove that your video is selling products. Instead, Simon suggested evaluating the amount of dollars the video is making per play.

The “dollars per play” metric completely deflates the well-known myth that a large amount of video views equates to more revenue. Take the two videos below for example, although the Kiddicare video tremendously exceeded the OneStopPlus video in play count, the OneStopPlus video easily surpassed the Kiddicare video in revenue gain.

This proves that video popularity does not always lead to an increase in revenue flow. This “dollars per play” measurement approach will help businesses avoid the expenditures of high production costs and drive more revenue with selective video content.

Viewer Feedback

Acquiring direct video feedback is a valuable tool when assessing your video strategy. More often than not, retailers rate video effectiveness by the amount of customer “likes” or ratings. Although this is useful information, Simon recommended collecting direct feedback from video viewers. This method allows you to pinpoint video strengths and weaknesses. Liveclicker adds a direct feedback button to every hosted video providing an easy way for retailers to attain valuable customer opinions.

A/B testing

Choosing product video content that resonates best with customers while generating revenue is no easy task. Ben emphasized that relying on intuition alone to choose product video content is dangerous, and that A/B testing is the only definite way of knowing what content works best.

Video thumbnails are a window into your product video content. Testing video thumbnail click-through rates helps you understand which video will yield the most positive results. Below is a perfect example of thumbnail testing from Advance Auto Parts’ product videos. One thumbnail displays two people explaining the product, the other displays the product solo.

Clearly, the thumbnail on the right was more effective, generating a higher click-through rate. But keep in mind, results can vary with every product. Although this type of video content was effective for this product, it may not be for all products. Ben stressed the importance of testing for your own specific brand because every product yields different results.

Video Comparisons

Retailers with a diverse video program often generalize video data results. Segmenting your video program is a much more effective way of monitoring your video analytics. You can reap useful information by comparing segmented videos with continuous A/B testing. For example, Onlineshoes.com researched the effectiveness of male presenters verses female presenters for men’s shoes using Liveclicker’s Custom Insight tool. This made it easy to find specific data for any video segment, thus maximizing the overall conversion of viewers to buyers.

Ad-Hoc Analysis

Have a goal in mind when analyzing your video program. Asking a specific question, and having an analytic solution to find the answer will help retailers reap the most beneficial results from their video analysis. Simon recommended avoiding canned reports that offer broad information. Instead, retailers can utilize the Liveclicker Report Builder and easily compare different video variables to find the answers to their unique questions.

Want to watch Simon and Ben in action? Access all of the 2013 Video Commerce Summit sessions and slides on-demand.

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Justin Foster

Justin is Co-Founder and VP Market Development of RealTime Email at Liveclicker. Prior to Liveclicker, Justin led the services practice for WhatCounts, Inc., an email marketing services provider, where he was responsible for client strategy and deliverability. He also founded the Email Marketing Roundtable, an industry discussion forum that represents over 1,500 email marketers worldwide including the majority of the largest online retailers in North America.